Twenty-five-year-old jockey Ethan Brown from Alice Springs is riding the Melbourne Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is famously the “race that stops the nation”, and this year, there is more reason for Centralians to pause to see if a local boy makes it big at Flemington on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
After 32 wins, he is one of the top jockeys in the Victorian standings this season.<\/p>\n
But he does not forget where he comes from.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alice Springs Pioneer Racecourse was where he discovered his passion.<\/p>\n
“I have plenty of memories there. I used to spend every day there before and after school and even on Sundays. That will never leave my memory, Pioneer Park,” Brown said.<\/p>\n
Others might be content with watching and making the occasional bet. Not so, Ethan Brown.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ethan Brown (right) rode Smokin’ Romans to victory at Flemington Racecourse in 2022. (Getty Images: Vince Caligiuri)<\/p>\n
He took his passion for horseracing to another level.<\/p>\n
“I made a big commitment at a young age to move out of home,” Brown said.<\/p>\n
Tough journey<\/p>\n
At the age of 15, he went to Melbourne to become an apprentice jockey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Being 1,900 kilometres from home at such an early age was tough.<\/p>\n
“It was a bit of a struggle there for a bit, but I stuck at it,” Brown said.<\/p>\n
So far, with great success.<\/p>\n
His achievements this season follow a bumper run of six Group 1 wins last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I am not saying I fluked it. I just got on that roll. And I had very good people behind me, with Ciaron [Maher] and the likes,” Brown said.<\/p>\n
Maher trained Gold Trip, the 2022 Melbourne Cup winner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The trainer has had a profound influence on Brown and a constant in his career.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ciaron Maher convinced Ethan Brown to return to racing after an accident. (Supplied: Ethan Brown)<\/p>\n
Without Maher’s encouragement, Brown would not have returned to racing after he suffered a severe fall that almost ended his career and his life two years ago.<\/p>\n
In the 2023 Australian Guineas at Flemington, with 300 metres to go, he fell off his horse Maximilius and was transported to hospital for emergency surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was out of the game for six months.<\/p>\n
It made him question his career and his future in the sport.<\/p>\n
“There was definitely a stage where I was at the crossroads. I injured myself quite badly,” Brown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I thought, ‘Is it even worth coming back?'”<\/p>\n
But then, he spoke to Ciaron Maher. That changed everything.<\/p>\n
“It’s the best job in the world. He goes, ‘You are mad if you don’t go back,'” Brown said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ethan Brown is one of the top jockeys in the Victorian standings this season. (Supplied: Ethan Brown)<\/p>\n
Brown returned to horseracing last year, working mostly with Maher.<\/p>\n
It has been a fruitful partnership.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winning run to Cup<\/p>\n
Just over two weeks ago, Brown rode Maher-trained Jimmysstar to an impressive third place at the Everest at Randwick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said it was “an amazing thrill”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was such a big build-up and a bit of pressure,” he said.<\/p>\n
Now he is going even bigger, and once again with a horse trained by Maher.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, he rides Middle Earth, trained by his mentor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Brown is trying to manage expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking of the six-year-old gelding from England, he said, “he’s been running well without winning in this group”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Brown thinks the conditions suit the mount.<\/p>\n
“There is a bit of rain forecast that will add to his chances, so you will see the best on him on Tuesday,” he said.<\/p>\n
Whatever the outcome at Flemington, it is difficult to disagree with the young hoop when he says: ” I am definitely happy with what I have achieved to this date.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-five-year-old jockey Ethan Brown from Alice Springs is riding the Melbourne Cup.\u00a0 It is famously the “race that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[24261,151317,64,63,151019,151315,23237,151316,84818,85],"class_list":["post-256445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alice-springs","tag-alice-springs-pioneer-racecourse","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ciaron-maher","tag-ethan-brown","tag-horse-racing","tag-jockey-from-alice-springs","tag-melbourne-cup","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}